Thai Public Health Min promotes milk consumption in World Milk Day

[webfact]

MOPH promotes milk consumption in World Milk Day

NONTHABURI, 1 June 2015 (NNT) – The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) encourages the Thai public to consume more milk on the occasion of the Wold Milk Day, as current data shows that Thai youths consume 4-7 times less milk than the global average.

MOPH Minister Rajata Rajatanavin has said on the occasion of the World Milk Day that the Ministry has been encouraging the Thai population, from young people to the seniors, to drink milk, particularly unsweetened whole milk to improve the strength of their bones and teeth.

The Ministry has also been promoting mothers to feed their babies only with their breast milk as an attempt to improve the intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ) of the Thai children. Breast milk is crucial to the child's development, from birth up to 6 months old.

1st June of every year is named the World Milk Day by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to let all countries to promote the benefits of milk. Milky contains quality protein, vitamin, and calcium, and contributes to the strength of bones and teeth.

The MOPH Minister has also revealed a 2013 survey result showing that Thai children on average consume only 14 litres of milk per person per year. This is lower than the average in the South East Asia region and the world by 4-7 times.

The average height of Thai persons aged 18 at 162.25, which is considered low, was due to low milk consumption. The MOPH is aiming to raise the average height of Thais to 171 centimetres, additionally with fit body shapes by 2025 through the increase of milk consumption, proper nutrition, and exercises that involves stretching such as swimming, basketball, pull up, and volleyball.


-- NNT 2015-06-01

[Somtamnication]

When I read this to my wife, for some unknown reason, she crossed her arms to cover something and shook her head.

[inquisitive]

The idea that whole cow milk is a healthy food is already many years out of date. It now sits right up there with the idea that steak and potatoes is an ideally nutritious meal, or that hamburgers are actually good for you. The fat content of whole milk is way above any healthy limits, even for children. Furthermore, there is serious concern regarding the presence of hormones in the milk, especially if the cows have been receiving chemicals to increase their milk production. That begs the question of whether the ministry is ignorant or corrupt. Perhaps out biggest clue is the minister's opinion that exercise will cause an increase in height. I'm sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger was relieved to see that there is no such relationship. Golly, it is discouraging to see that policymakers don't check their basic assumptions before making decisions that can have such a major effect on so many people. When will governments start to choose its ministers on some basis other than politics?

[BuaBS]

Is it April 1st ? > 35 B/litre for awfull tasting milk probably polluted with hormones, anti biotics & additives to keep it in this weather... he's kidding right? Maybe soja milk ( from GM soja ?) or expensive coconut milk ( if you're not living on Koh Samui ).

[Nick167]

Is milk really healthy???? I wonder how much the MOPH really knows.

[dominique355]

If the government wants to promote milk, why not offer some FRESH milk here in Thailand? Not this crap made from powder we got here.

[shirtless]

I would have it checked for radiation first milk nowadays is not very healthy.

[maidee]

anybody above the age of 3 stop producing the enzyme to break it down

cow's milk is to make a 30 pound calf into a 300 pound cow, not for humans, unless, you want to look like a cow

+ asians don't have the enzymes in most cases in the first place, aka intollerant

[Caspersfriend]

Ministry of Public Health

What a misnomer that is!

Nearly every person in the region has a problem digesting milk, however they are being encouraged to consume more. http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000661 Obviously those in the dairy industry will suggest these figures are inaccurate.

[timmyp]

Despite having lived around Asia for 20 years, I only recently learned how widespread lactose intolerance is.

There is a breakdown of lactose intolerance by country and ethnicity here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence

Very interesting. It puts Thailand at 98% lactose intolerance! There sure is alot of milk on the shelves for a country that is so lactose intolerant.

The fat content of whole milk is way above any healthy limits,

The fat content in milk is fine. What is out-of-date is this anti-fat trend.

My folks were part of the fat-is-bad-for you health trend, so I was raised on skim milk. I still prefer the taste of skim milk (that shocks lots of folks, but you would prefer it too if you were raised on it), but have switched to whole milk after I came to understand more about nutrition. Fat isn't bad for us, it's the carbs that we need to avoid. Carbs in milk go up, incidentally, when you remove the fat.

If someone is suffering from clogged arteries, then avoid fats, of course. But they didn't get that way from fat consumption, it was from carbs.

[Prbkk]

Singaporeans, Japanese, koreans....all about 10cm taller in 65 years, largely as a consequence of increased dairy and protein. Thailand faces an epidemic of carbohydrate related disease without growth.

[inquisitive]

That is an extremely interesting statistic, and I would like to learn more. How did the researchers go about proving the direct connection between increased dairy and protein consumption and increased length of the long bones (i.e. tallness or height)? Or was this just a correlation that they found? Could it have been caused by a change in the dna pool over all those years? Or maybe from watching more television or such? Without very careful control, any such study is only interesting enough to suggest areas for real research, but no conclusions can be reached on just a simple observation. That's why I'd appreciate whatever scientific reference you can give me. Thanks.

[inquisitive]

Ok, it seems this topic has already died a natural death, but I still feel compelled to write that I apparently was overzealous in my comments. There's some interesting research that indicates that milk consumption - especially mother's milk - at a very early age CAN make a difference in height. The party about how bad the fat content of whole milk can be is still not PROVEN, though I will still stand by that opinion, probably because I've known people in their teens with a history of heart attacks from clogged arteries. The added hormones? No one is saying they're good, and of course the notion that exercise equals growth is just plain silly (though it cold give that impression by improving posture). So my apologies to all for spouting of information taught in medical school, but way out of date. And my apologies to the good Minister who was at least part right.